M3-Ready Apple iPad Pro and iPad Air May Be Official on March 26

2024 Apple iPad Pro and iPad Air launch and release date

Taiwanese outlet ITHome cited industry sources that third-party accessories for the upcoming iPad tablets will be available in the market on March 26. What does this suggest? Apple will announce the 2024 iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets on the same day, which will be a week from now.

There was also no confirmation on how the announcement will unfold, be it via the standard press release or a formal event. The latter is less likely though, as it appears there are no invitations or developments rumored within Apple to support this.

Analyst Ross Young seems to support the claim in his company's latest report. Basically, it mentioned Apple will make the new iPads official in the last week of March while pre-orders and actual shipping of these devices will commence sometime in April.

Bloomberg's journalist Mark Gurman is one of the early sources that shed light on this iPad's launch window. Apparently, the Apple leaker is doubling down in his latest Power On newsletter that the announcement is still on track for a late March rollout with device availability set to happen next month.

Gurman added Apple is preparing to wrap up a version of iPadOS 17.4 that is the alleged operating system these iPads that will boot on. Apple is then expected to ship the firmware to factories once the firmware is ready, which will most probably be when the iPad begins shipping to retailers.

What can I expect from the new iPad Pro and iPad Air?

Based on existing leaks, the 2024 Apple iPad Pro series is made up of 11-inch and 13-inch models, which are slightly larger versions of the existing M2 iPad Pro (review). Both are the first iPads to feature OLED screens and will be powered by the Apple M3 SoC.

On the other hand, this year's iPad Air line is said to add a 12.9-inch model and will be offered alongside the 10.9-inch variant. At the same time, the two iPad Air entries should introduce substantial hardware updates like a faster processor and landscape selfie camera. Furthermore, Apple is tipped to reveal new Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard accessories as well.

Which new iPad Pro and iPad Air models do you plan to buy? Are you excited about the larger iPad Air? We're eager to hear your thoughts on this.

Source: ITHome, Display Supply Chain, Bloomberg